NYSE Euronext ATS Says UNX Is First to Join SFTI Community

The brokerage services provider is the first part of NYSE Euronext ATS' vision of a hosted trading solutions business connecting financial firms and third-party providers.

NYSE Euronext Advanced Trading Solutions (ATS) introduced the SFTI Community Platform, a hosted trading solutions environment through which third-party providers can offer applications to financial firms. According to NYSE Euronext ATS (booths #1436, 1438 and 1764), UNX, a provider of technology and agency brokerage services to the buy and sell sides, will be the first participant to join the SFTI — Secure Financial Transactions Infrastructure — Community.

Known for its market structure and electronic trading expertise, UNX is joining the new SFTI Community Platform partly in response to the needs of NYSE floor brokers, according to an NYSE Euronext ATS release. Until recently, NYSE floor brokers were not allowed to trade away from the floor. Since that embargo was lifted, the floor brokers have had to rely on exchange technology to route to other markets. In response to interest from NYSE floor brokers, UNX will integrate its MetaBook EMS and smart order routing product with the Broker Booth Support System (BBSS) handheld devices used by the NYSE floor brokers, enabling them to route orders from their handheld devices to other markets for the first time, the release notes.

NYSE Euronext ATS officials say UNX is the first part of a broader vision of a hosted solutions business that will be open to other third-party providers. "We have agreements in the works with other technology entities to provide their functionality in the SFTI network as a hosted facility," relates Murray White, SVP at NYSE Euronext ATS.

SFTI connects more than 900 financial firms to all of the Reg NMS destinations and options exchanges. Through relationships with other extranet providers, the network also connects firms to other market centers.

"It's an open and neutral environment," explains Mark DiFraia, managing director, business development, within the NYSE Euronext ATS group. "We're open to application providers that want to make services available to the broad customer base. Execution services or any software that would help firms in the life cycle of a transaction would be logical entities to have available within our environment."
White says the SFTI Community Platform eventually could integrate applications such as complex event processing, pre-trade analytics, execution management systems and algorithms.

Ivy is Editor-at-Large for Advanced Trading and Wall Street & Technology. Ivy is responsible for writing in-depth feature articles, daily blogs and news articles with a focus on automated trading in the capital markets. As an industry expert, Ivy has reported on a myriad ... View Full Bio